When Lori and I were newlyweds, more than twenty years ago, we took turns reading aloud from a novel before we went to sleep. It was Silas Marner by George Eliot and it was new to us both. One night Lori read, and the next I did. We soon finished the lovely story, sharing the experience, sentence by sentence.
This spring, as I've been traveling around the country giving Well-Read Life workshops, I've delighted in hearing the stories people share with me about how reading has transformed their lives. Some of the sweetest stories come from couples explaining how books bind their lives together.
In Miami, I met a couple in their thirties who spend the hour before bed reading aloud—she to him. You could see on their faces the satisfaction this brings to them as they quietly described their reading ritual.
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Sometimes books continue to bind us with loved ones after those loved ones are gone.
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Ross and Melanie King read short stories aloud—he to her while she makes dinner. Just about the time Melanie sets their plates on the table, Ross slows to finish the last line.
Cooking together is what another couple loves. They enjoy seeking out new cookbooks, and they document their experience with notes in the margin as they make the meal. They record how they may have altered the recipe, tips for next time, what friends were over to share in the meal, and their feelings about the evening. Their cookbooks become shared journals of good times together.
Sometimes books continue to bind us with loved ones after those loved ones are gone. One woman wrote to me that she never used to write in her books, until she came across comments her father and husband jotted down and she experienced how those notes could "bring back the person who left their mark in my life."
On an author's cruise a few years ago, I met a lovely couple from California who were relishing their retirement, which was filled with travel and avid reading. Some months ago, she wrote to tell me that her husband had suddenly passed away. She plans to delve into some of his favorites books and to read one book in particular that he had bought and was so looking forward to: Monty: Final Years of the Field-Marshal, 1944-1976. It seems that reading the book and imagining how her late husband would have enjoyed it is a way for her to linger with him yet.
Lori and I recently decided to read a second book to one another. We're looking forward to holding its binding—and its binding effect on us.
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Reader’s Question: Do you have a story about how books have brought you and your partner closer? I'd love to hear it.
Please click here to respond.
If you read this column, you
just got a taste for some of the topics covered in my book,The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life.
You can order your copy through your nearest independent bookstore (via BookSense.com), or other booksellers.
Simply request The Little Guide to Your Well-Read Life (Levenger Press, hardcover, $17.50). The audio version is also available, in CD format and read by the author. Or you can buy the digital version from www.audible.com.
